[Dr. Aaron Lerner - OK. Let's think about what Gimpel had apparently just
quoted from as he spoke to a group of Christian friends of Israel -

Ezra 3:10-11: And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of
the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the
Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the
ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in
praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because He is good, for His mercy
endures for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great
shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of
the Lord was laid.

And Gimpel then says: "Imagine today if the golden dome, I'm being recorded
so I can't say blown up, but let's say it was blown up, right, and we laid
the cornerstone of the temple in Jerusalem. Can you imagine what would be.
None of you would be here. You would be going to Israel. It would be
incredible."

So.

Did Gimpel say someone should blow up the Dome of the Rock?

No.

Was it the brightest thing to say?

He himself indicates in the recording that he realizes that it isn't ("I'm
being recorded so I can't say blown up").

But, on the other hand, if this short clip is the most that can be dug up to
use against someone who has generated so much material then the real
question is if pushing this item for a news cycle will hurt Bayit Yehudi or
actually have a boomerang effect.]
==============================

The Tzipi Livni Party announced Saturday that it planned to request from the
Central Elections Committee that a Bayit Yehudi candidate who spoke of the
Dome of the Rock being "blown up" in a video clip be disqualified from
running in Tuesday's election.

The clip, which was revealed first by Channel 2, shows the 14th candidate on
the Bayit Yehudi list, Atlanta-native Jeremy Gimpel, addressing a group of
Christian Zionists in Florida in November 2011. Gimpel states in the clip,
"Imagine today if the golden dome, I'm being recorded so i can't say blown
up, but let's say it was blown up, right, and we laid the cornerstone of the
temple in Jerusalem. Can you imagine what would be. None of you would be
here. You would be going to Israel. It would be incredible."

Livni Party MK Yoel Hasson said Saturday evening that he would ask the
committee to disqualify Gimpel on the grounds that he had voiced incitement
to racism.

"The mask of the cool start-up guy has been ripped from the face of [Bayit
Yehudi chairman Naftali] Bennett," the Livni Party said. "The strange list
that he is taking to the Knesset seeks to inflame the Middle East and to
bring on a third World War with its crazy visions of building a temple."

Gimpel responded that the clip was taken out of context from a lecture he
gave to a Christian group about the book of Ezra, a story that happened over
2,000 years ago.

"The controversy is ridiculous," Gimpel said. "In order to make the lecture
more lively I made a few jokes and you clearly hear the audience laughing.
This is a cheap political attack and I would urge anyone to watch the video
in its entirety and decide for yourselves."

But the dovish Israeli website 972 Magazine later released another clip in
which Gimpel said the Dome of the Rock "doesn't belong there."

Asked about the connections of his Landofisrael.com to Messianic Christian
organizations, Gimpel said: "We have a policy of staying away from Jews for
Jesus groups. Our major donors are Jews. We don't take money from Christian
organizations, but we do accept money from individuals of all backgrounds."

Bayit Yehudi leader Nafatali Bennett also defended Gimpel, saying that the
video showed a Bible lesson, and was not a call to blow up the Temple Mount.
Bennett expressed frustration that reports about him and his list came out
on Shabbat when they could not respond.

In an interview with Channel 2, Bennett lashed out at Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu for the Likud's repeated attacks on Bayit Yehudi
candidates. He said Netanyahu was doing to Bayit Yehudi what the Left did to
demonize him following the 1995 assassination of then-prime minister Yitzhak
Rabin.

"Netanyahu started the most despicable campaign I've ever seen against
religious Zionists," Bennett said.

Netanyahu responded in his own Channel 2 interview that he had the utmost
respect for religious Zionists.

"Religious Zionists are part of the national leadership thanks to Likud,"
Netanyahu said. "It's not right to send them back to sectarian parties.
Sectarian parties are not good for Israel."

Asked about a statement from Bennett that his employment as Netanyahu's
chief of staff ended on good terms, the prime minister said "The fact is
that it ended and I won't go beyond that."